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Understanding the Competing Tax Plans

The two major gubernatorial candidates in November's election have released plans to provide tax relief for Virginia's residential property owners. We growled about the two plans on Monday, based upon a Richmond Times-Dispatch column. Now comes Arlington's Wayne Kubicki to shed a bright light on the competing plans of Jerry Kilgore (R) and Tim Kaine (D). In a letter to the editor in Thursday's Richmond Times-Dispatch, on which the paper bestowed their "Correspondent of the Day" award, Kubicki makes two key points. First, he addresses the whining of a lobbyists for local governments that the tax plans will cause revenue problems for local government officials, but Kubicki notes that neither plan caps the tax rates, which are controlled by city and county officials. Kubicki's second point is that both plans will change the direction of who shares the burden of the real estate property tax. He notes that over the past four years in Arlington, residential assessments have risen three to four times faster than commercial assessments. Just asking, but why haven't Arlington's Grand Pooh-Bahs been making this point? Instead, they keep repeating the "lowest tax rate in the region" mantra.